“The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.” ― Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

----------

“No, no, Choi,” Luhan stopped her, “You put your middle finger here, your pinky over here, and your thumb here. After that you move your fingers like this.” Luhan pressed his fingers swiftly on the piano keys.

Sooyoung scratched her head with her left hand and pressed her right hand fingers on the keys, “Like… this?”

“No! No! Your middle finger is wrong! Gosh! Your fingers are so… stiff!” He said, annoyed.

Sooyoung’s eyes widened, “This is my first time playing the piano for years! Teach me patiently, will you?” She retorted.

Luhan sighed, “Okay, okay. I’m sorry. Um… Let’s do this first. To relax your stiff fingers, do this.” Luhan folded his index, middle, and ring finger and pressed his thumb and pinky to the front side of the piano until it was spread as far as he could. “Do this to all your fingers.” He pointed Sooyoung’s right hand.

Sooyoung was flabbergasted, “But it seems painful!” Her eyes widened in horror.

“No, it’s not!” Luhan rolled his eyes, “Just do it!”

“I won’t!” Sooyoung answered, “It’s painful!”

Luhan looked at her in disbelief, “Why… you… Okay, you forced me.” He suddenly grabbed Sooyoung’s hand and took her fingers in his.

“What are you…?!” Sooyoung was shocked, she tried to pull her hand but Luhan’s grasp was too strong.

“It’s not going to hurt, Choi, trust me,” He said calmly and folded her fingers. Sooyoung winced a little when he softly pressed her fingers to the front side of the piano. He kept on holding her hand while pressing her fingers softly. “See?” he said, “It doesn’t hurt, right?”

Sooyoung nodded a little. “Ouch!” She yelped when Luhan pressed her fingers a bit too strong, “Slowly, Luhanney!”

Luhan didn’t seem to hear her. “This really helps when your fingers are stiff, you know,” he said, his attention was full on Sooyoung’s hand, “I always do this before I play the piano. Whenever I was nervous and my fingers suddenly stiffened and can’t be moved…” he smiled a little while kept on pressing on Sooyoung’s fingers, this time he was working on the index finger and middle finger.

His hand is warm, Sooyoung thought and she felt that her cheeks reddened. Choi Sooyoung! Wake up! He’s the annoying Luhanney! This inner voice inside her whispered and she vigorously shook her head.

“There. We’re done,” He smiled, “You can try playing it now.”

“O-okay.” Sooyoung’s face looked determined and she started to play on the first few notes. Amazingly, her fingers seemed to be working pretty well. She could reach from a key to another and the fingers were amazingly in sync with her brain. Her fingers movement suddenly became so swift, she didn’t know why.

“Wow! How did you do that?” Sooyoung smiled happily when she finished the first page and looked at Luhan.

He grinned sheepishly, “I’m good at this, Choi.”

“You definitely are,” Sooyoung threw him a grateful smile. Luhan coughed at the sudden all-nice attack from Sooyoung, “Um… Thanks.” He rubbed the back of his neck, “Shall we continue?”

Sooyoung nodded happily, “Now tell me, how should I do this?”

----------

“Choi Sooooooyouuuuung stop it… Let’s go home, please, pretty pretty pleeeease? I’m tired…” Yuri whined.

Sooyoung smiled apologetically at Yuri, “One more page, Yul? One more page?”

Yuri pouted, “You keep on saying ‘one more page’ since an hour ago and I think it’s already… what, 7 pages?”

Sooyoung laughed, “Five, to be exact, Yul. And I promise this time, one more page and we’ll go home.”

“Okay,” Yuri frowned and reached for her iPad, “I’ll just play around with this.”

“Thanks, Yul. You’re one true friend.” Sooyoung said, touched, while wiping her fake tears. Yuri answered by yawning.

It was after one of their piano class on a Wednesday night when Sooyoung decided to stay a while after the class and repeated what she had learned earlier in the class. Well, what she meant by ‘for a while’ was staying-there-and-playing-the-piano-for-more-than-three-hours. Sooyoung was absolutely in love with the instrument, how it can produce such beautiful melody that she could only imagine and what made her the happiest was, she was the one who played it.

Being a brave girl didn’t mean that she didn’t need companion, thus she forced Yuri to accompany her every Wednesday for her extra class, and being a diligent girl she was, Sooyoung almost mastered the “Etudes” while Yuri was still struggling on the second movement on their third class.

Her attention full on the musical score, Sooyoung skillfully moved her fingers here and there and created such a beautiful melody. Smiling widely, she continued to play until the end of the tenth movement. When she finished, she smiled triumphantly, “Two more movements to go and I’ll master this Etudes! Did you hear that, Yul? Did you hear me play?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Yuri answered, her eyes were fixated at her iPad screen, “You did a great job, Choi.”

“Thanks,” Sooyoung smiled brightly.

Unknown to both of them, a figure was watching them the whole time, ever since Sooyoung entered the class until now. Peeking through a small window on the door, he was looking at a certain Choi Sooyoung. He smiled a little when he saw Sooyoung played the piece while smiling happily. “It’s still not perfect, Choi,” he said to himself, “The tenth movement is still messy,” he chuckled. He admired her effort and